The problem is how the whole thing was presented to people. You just need to pass by subreddits related to ChatGPT to see the amount of misunderstandings about how it works, just an example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1ld6dot/a_close_friend_confessed_she_almost_fell_into/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1koadmg/testing_gpts_response_to_delusional_prompts_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1low386/this_is_what_recursion_looks_like/